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Times
32 minutes ago
- Times
Times letters: NHS to prefer homegrown doctors and nurses
Write to letters@ Sir, As a hard-working British medical student who will have benefited from six years of taxpayer-funded investment and education at UK medical school, I welcome the government's commitment to give priority to British doctors for NHS jobs (reports, Jul 1). Reform to relieve the bottleneck in access to specialty training programmes is long overdue. The plan recognises that solely pledging to increase the number of medical students is not enough to sustainably bolster our workforce. International medical graduates play a crucial role in supporting the needs of a desperately understaffed health service, but this should never come at the cost of stifling opportunities for homegrown SahUCL medical student; Warwick Sir, The suggestion of placing work coaches in GP surgeries will be met with dismay by many in primary care. Although the idea of supporting patients is to be applauded, how is space to be found for these coaches? With the rise in other supporting roles, including physiotherapists and pharmacists, over the past few years, practices are already struggling — and that is without any funding for the necessary increase in consulting space. Perhaps the only solution would be for doctors to undertake more remote working from home to free up space, reducing the number of face-to-face appointments — something that might not go down well with Jeremy SK Phipps MRCGPWothorpe, Cambs Sir, I represent the industry that supplies four out of five NHS medicines and welcome the news that the UK's two drug regulatory bodies (the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) will collaborate to improve efficiency. Crucially, their task force must enable more patients to access appropriate medicines, regardless of whether the drug is new. As a result of competition, prices typically drop by up to 90 per cent when a drug's patent expires, saving the NHS more than £18 billion last year and meaning that the UK has the lowest drug prices in Europe. About 250 medicine patents are set to expire during this parliament, which, if adopted without delay, could save the NHS an extra £3 billion a year; just a day's delay in licensing an off-patent medicine can cost the NHS millions. Meanwhile, Nice continues to focus on high-cost, patented drugs because its funding model depends on fees from evaluating them. This structure is fundamentally unsuited to the generics sector that supplies most NHS medicines. Officials across Whitehall and NHS England are working hard to realise the full benefits of off-patent medicines, but looming budget cuts now threaten these very SamuelsChief executive, Medicines UK Sir, Your news report might give the impression that overseas qualified doctors are being employed in preference to UK-trained doctors. This could not be further from the truth (bar a few exceptions). Your article rightly notes the rising number of unemployed British graduates. This is entirely the result of the increasing practice of employing physician associates to undertake jobs that should be done by resident Arun BaksiEmeritus consultant physician,Wootton Bridge, Isle of Wight Sir, I totally agree with Robin Allum's letter (Jul 1) on Martha's Rule. I am a retired consultant radiologist, also with 50 years' experience in the NHS. During that time I was, for five years, responsible for the medical training and welfare of 150 junior doctors. In 1998 I was on a government committee to advise on the application of the European working time directive to junior doctors and their training. The government did not listen to a word of our advice . Thus a young doctor could fulfil all the 48 hours allowed over a weekend shift and have no hours left in the week for essential training on ward rounds, in theatre etc. The young doctors became very disillusioned and did not work as a team, as they had previously. Continuity of care was lost and also the camaraderie involved in teamwork. That working directive changed the face of medicine. Previously doctors had a separate dining room; they could eat a sandwich together and discuss various difficult-to-diagnose patients. That has all gone. As Allum says, the medical profession should be very grateful to the Mills and James families for the pressure to apply Martha's Rule. How sad that it has become Luck FRCRAscot, Berks Sir, Michael Johnstone (letter, Jul 1) may congratulate himself on asking for a table for two in full knowledge that he will be dining alone, and thus ensuring he will not be given an inferior table. But it is dishonest. And it denies the restaurant the chance to use that table for a genuine party of two and to increase its income in these difficult times for the hospitality industry — rather like paying for one train seat and then using a second seat for your luggage and denying a paying passenger a chance to sit down. His tactic may work once but he may well find himself, deservedly, asked to move right out of the restaurant the next time he tries it NeubergerLondon NW11 Sir, Further to Michael Johnstone's letter, I always feel it adds credence to my table for two if I order two glasses of wine on arrival. The second rarely goes to WilliamsAston Rowant, Oxon Sir, If Bobby Vylan's racist diatribe had contained the n-word or the P-word, we can be sure that the BBC would — rightly — have pulled the plug ('BBC boss left Glastonbury death chants on livestream', news, Jul 1). The BBC's apology is necessary but insufficient. The key point that requires both investigation and personal (not just institutional) responsibility is why a stream of anti-Jewish invective didn't trouble a single pair of ears within the large BBC production team at Wolfson of Tredegar KCShadow attorney-general; justice minister 2020-22 Sir, In his excellent comment article ('What's Starmer's big idea? He needs to tell us', Jul 1), William Hague says that 'the prime minister could stand up after a year in office and explain the world he has now seen'. Given that the gift of the gab may be not one of Sir Keir Starmer's sterling qualities, which communication channels would Hague suggest to the prime minister, in a world in which adults spend more time on their phones than watching television and reading newspapers? A prime ministerial broadcast monthly or quarterly perhaps? It must be more difficult getting messages and ideas, sometimes complex, across in a world of soundbites on social ChapmanLondon SE1 Sir, The letter from IH Piper (Jun 26) illustrates one of the core problems in maternity care: the belief that women's health issues can be fixed with a scalpel and a bit of surgical bravado. Forced episiotomy and repair are not the silver bullets he imagines. In fact, they sit among the reasons women feel traumatised and ignored by the very system meant to care for them. Those who think the answer to maternity failings is 'cut more, stitch better' have not been listening — to clinicians, to evidence and, most importantly, to women. His throwaway line about non-qualified staff also reveals the deeper rot: the devaluation of women's health, where under-resourced services are patched up with cheap fixes and the myth that technical interventions can substitute for compassion, time and trust. We don't need 'birthing technicians'. Rather, we need to support obstetricians and midwives, whose expertise in holistic, safe and respectful care is too often sidelined or Dalton MRCOGLeeds Sir, You report that players and spectators are struggling to hear Wimbledon's AI line calls ('Players call out whispering AI judges', Jul 1). I suggest a Dalek is employed at each court to announce the calls, as their distinctive diction is easily understood. Also, and to emphasise that they have called out, the Dalek should waggle its forehead-mounted exterminator. The umpire could be issued with a sonic screwdriver to adjust the volume as RileySandhurst, Berks Sir, Your report on healthcare advice in the Middle Ages ('First catch a lizard: beauty tips from the Middle Ages', Jun 30) calls to mind the writings of the Benedictine nun Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179). She suggested recipes for healthy eating, with recommendations that 'Butter should be eaten in moderation by those who are fat lest his weak flesh becomes fatter' and 'salt is good but not to excess' (Physica, Book 2), which seem ubiquitous in guidance on modern healthy living. Hildegard also extolled the benefits of camomile, but her advice to 'drink water with the dried liver of a lion as an aid to digestion' did not seem to catch on. Her recipes for 'boiling hedgehog with wine and cinnamon recommended for a good healthy supper' and 'earthworms mashed to a paste with wine, vinegar and flour for scrofula' are less appealing. She said slugs could be used if there were no earthworms to hand (Physica, Book 7).Dr Valerie ShrimplinSt Albans Sir, Further to Joanna Williams's comment article (Jun 30; letters, Jul 1), communications to clergy from our diocesan office seem more interested in net zero, church buildings and community events than in sharing the Gospel. Nationally, the fact that many of our bishops seem content in debates to jettison Christ's teaching suggests a lack of personal conviction about the core truths of Christianity. Inevitably, this leads to decline. But those churches that unashamedly teach Scripture — however counter-cultural this is — are bucking the trend, being attended by many of all ages. This is not down to great talent on their part, but simply the truth and power of the good news about PaineVicar, St Andrew the Great, Cambridge Sir, I read with interest Lucy Cavendish's article about Mounjaro and how it affected her family (Times2, Jun 30). I lost three stone over a couple of years using Dr Michael Mosley's advice simply to eat less. I followed a normal healthy diet involving fresh ingredients such as meat, fish and vegetables and ate less each day — eg, instead of two pieces of toast for breakfast, I ate one. I ate a light lunch such as soup and a sandwich and a normal evening meal. It was very easy, and as I cooked for my family they had larger portions. I avoided puddings and ate fruit but had a piece of dark chocolate with my coffee after supper. Much easier than taking Mounjaro and I am still three stone NaylorWivenhoe, Essex Sir, Researchers in Canada report that eating cheese in the evening may disturb your sleep (Jul 1). Charles Dickens, then, was ahead of his time when, in A Christmas Carol, Scrooge encounters Marley's ghost and tells him he doubts his senses, stating: 'A little thing affects them. A slight disorder of the stomach makes them cheats. You may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato. There's more of gravy than grave of you, whatever you are!'Stephen BussSeaford, E Sussex Write to letters@
The Guardian
42 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Glastonbury chanters or the Southport hate-tweeter – throw the book at one, you must throw it at them all
News that Avon and Somerset police have launched criminal investigations into the bands Bob Vylan and Kneecap for their Glastonbury sets reminds me that we have a severe prisons crisis in the UK, and that we need to build more of them. Perhaps we should build a special one for all the people we keep criminally investigating for saying, rather than doing, bad things. I'm pretty sure they have a few of those types of prisons in other countries. Although, it must be said that those are normally countries run by people we consider bad. Confusing! But look, maybe we're becoming the sort of country where we imprison lots of people for saying awful things. I don't … love this look for us, I have to say. But no doubt someone has thought it all through very, very carefully. If so, they could put the two nasty idiots from Bob Vylan in it. Obviously all of Kneecap, too. Maybe those guys would have their cell on the same landing as Lucy Connolly, the woman who was imprisoned for two years and seven months for a repulsive tweet in the wake of the Southport child killings. They could be joined by whoever at the BBC didn't pull the Glastonbury live stream on Saturday after Bob Vylan started their repulsive chants, given that Conservative frontbencher Chris Philp is now officially calling for the corporation to be 'urgently' investigated. I see Chris is also calling for the BBC to be prosecuted – so I guess he's already done the police investigation for them, and all at the same time as absolutely aceing his brief as shadow home secretary for where-are-they-now political outfit the Conservative party. In terms of Spewing Hate Into The Nation's Living RoomsTM, it must be said that the footage of Bob Vylan's offending set is still embedded into multiple stories on the MailOnline website, all containing an exhortation to 'watch the full video'. Should whoever is leaving the videos up on MailOnline also be investigated and prosecuted? Perhaps Chris Philp could adjudicate. Either way, let's keep a cell or five for them in the special new prison. After all, why on earth shouldn't we imprison a few journalists, too? In for a penny, and so on. Needless to say, embattled prime minister Keir Starmer has made time to have plenty of official views not just on the behaviour of the two bands, but on any future decisions to book them. If all you have is a hammer, everything is a nail – and if your big job before politics was being director of public prosecutions, then I'm sure everything looks like a prosecutable offence. It certainly did to the prime minister after last summer's riots in the wake of the Southport murders, when Starmer seemed to relish the response happening the best way he knew how: by rushing it through the courts. Connolly was one of those prosecuted, in her case for a manifestly revolting and racist but also clearly tossed-off post responding to a false rumour the killer was an asylum seeker, saying people could set fire to asylum hotels 'for all I care'. She admitted inciting racial hatred in court, but has since become something of a cause celebre for the fact that she is a mother with an otherwise clean record (and one who had lost a young child herself), and that she has got a harsher sentence for this tweet that she later deleted than some convicted rapists. I wrote in the immediate wake of the riots that it was clear that something big had happened in the UK – though it wasn't yet precisely clear what. Unfortunately, the prime minister seemed to think it was fairly simple. 'Let me also say to large social media companies and those who run them,' he said, albeit to some reporters instead, 'violent disorder clearly whipped up online: that is also a crime. It's happening on your premises, and the law must be upheld everywhere.' Sadiq Khan seemed to think it was something to do with the Online Safety Act not being 'fit for purpose'. In more successful hot takes, it was also the moment that Elon Musk test-drove his epithet 'two-tier Keir'. That one has stuck, and it will stick even harder if, for example, sublebrity band Bob Vylan don't get the book thrown at them in the same way that no-mark Lucy Connolly did. To be clear, I don't think any of the aforementioned lot ought to be in prison, however vile and unacceptable their behaviour was. But if you don't deal with them in pretty much the same way, then people are going to be talking far more loudly about two-tier justice again. This type of talk has already reached all the way into the Oval Office where, in February, vice-president JD Vance suggested to Starmer that the UK had a free speech problem. You might have seen that Bob Vylan have just promptly had their US visas revoked for what the deputy secretary of state called 'their hateful tirade'. But we can't expect consistency from the Trump administration. What we expect of our own country is infinitely more important. I used to think masses of legislation around what horrible things people could or couldn't say was a niche-application civilisational advance, but I have changed my view, and now fear we are sleepwalking towards a society where half the people will think certain incarcerated miscreants are political prisoners, and the other half will think a different bunch of incarcerated miscreants are political prisoners. I am very much for living in a country where we don't think we have political prisoners at all. Getting there isn't simple – but stopping travelling in the wrong direction would be a good start. Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. This article's URL was amended shortly after publication to remove draft text that was included in error.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Country diary: Our local hedgehogs seem to be thriving, but their lives are so precarious
The ball of brown, dry, crinkled leaves was breathing. In and out it went, gently expanding and contracting. As I watched, the 'leaves' resolved into prickles – it was a sleeping hedgehog, curled up under the honeysuckle. A hedgehog has been living in the garden for at least the last three years. On warm evenings when the windows are open, I hear it bumbling about, snuffling and grunting, searching for slugs, snails and insects. I think it lives under the shed in summer, and in winter it hibernates in an old compost bin filled with sticks and sections of turf. Encouragingly, the local hog population seems to have grown over the past 18 months, with neighbours noticing animals of varying sizes. The signs are clear: telltale tunnels pushed through patches of long grass reveal nocturnal hunting routes. In the morning, their perambulations are marked in the dew, showing their travels over damp lawns. Hedgehogs forage over a surprisingly wide area, roaming up to a mile every night. Distinctive droppings are another indication of their presence: glistening, deep-brown chipolatas tapering to pointed ends, left on paths and in flowerbeds. Often packed with undigested insect fragments, wing-cases and nibbles of chitin, they are darker than cat poo, shorter and less twisted than fox turds. Sadly, the hot, dry spring has been tough for hogs, with lack of water a particular problem. While the village has several shallow streams where they can drink easily, other places around here are not so well provided. On Easter Sunday I found one blundering around in the sun near the stony beach at Porlock Weir. It was thin, dehydrated and confused. I rang the local hedgehog rescue group and followed their advice to take it to a vet. He was not hopeful of its chances, and I hadn't the heart to follow up the next day and find out whether it survived. Back in the main village, there's been a more hopeful event. Hoglets – baby hedgehogs – have been spotted. A couple of householders have put homemade signs out on the pavement to warn drivers to go slowly and take care of these newest residents. Under the Changing Skies: The Best of the Guardian's Country Diary, 2018-2024 is published by Guardian Faber; order at and get a 15% discount
